In a manufacturing environment it is often necessary to produce assemblies or subassemblies including electromechanical components. It is further desirable to increase the number of electromechanical components assembled within a given volume or surface area (i.e., increase the “density”).
In various applications, such as telecommunications applications, printed circuit boards (PCBs) are generally cooled by a fan assembly including multiple fans or other cooling devices. Typically, a chassis or enclosure includes PCB assemblies (e.g., revenue-generating circuit cards) providing various functions as well as a fan assembly for cooling purposes. The available chassis space must support the mounting of fans, the mounting of electronic controls associated with the fans and the mounting of the PCB assemblies providing various functions. Where the amount of chassis space necessary to support the cooling function is larger than desirable, the number of fans must be reduced or the number of functions must be reduced.
When opting for fewer fans, the cooling capacity of the fan assembly is reduced or expensive components such as heat sinks are needed. When opting to use more space for the fan assembly, the number of PCB assemblies such as revenue-generating circuit cards is reduced.